Currently, there are two licensed satellite radio providers in the United States, XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (“XM”) and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (“Sirius”), each having a unique transmission format. It has long been desirable for consumers to be able to receive both satellite radio services on one receiver, so that if they would like to change services, no new hardware would need to be purchased. This desire can often occur, for example, when a consumer sells an automobile equipped with a receiver capable of receiving one of the satellite radio services to another consumer who desires to receive the other service. Such an interoperable radio design would need to receive both services utilizing the same hardware. However, due to the many differences between the two systems, this is not as easy as tuning to a different frequency, or even a different band, as can be done on an AM/FM radio. Alternatively, it may be that one day Sirius and XM merge into a combined satellite radio company, and such combined company may desire to keep both formats operating and let a consumer choose which service he or she receives.
It is noted that the simplest approach to an interoperable radio design would be to populate a single circuit design with separate chipsets capable of individually receiving each service. However, this approach can be very costly, would have a large footprint and be an overall inefficient receiver design.
Thus, what is needed in the art is an interoperable satellite radio receiver that intelligently utilize all the commonalities of each system to build the most efficient design in size and power.